etc.

And so, they multiply:

This is Astrid and she is my very-last-minute-squeak-in-before-the-deadline contribution to the May Month of Softies. When Claire announced that this month’s theme would be “May Flowers” I immediately thought of the little spider web embroidered flowers I have been eager to try my hand at ever since I first saw them beautifully executed by Heidi. They’re fun to do (decent instructions here) although a bit of a struggle on felt. Still, I like the end product so much that I would gladly wrestle the felt anytime.

Anyway, Astrid is up for adoption, and I’m up for bed. The mister & I just spent the last two hours postering the neighbourhood for our First Annual Street Sale (which happens this weekend. Toronto readers, feel free to e-mail me for location details. 20 households — you might want to stop by) and I’m just spent after all that fresh air & physical activity. I’m so out of shape, it’s miserable.

Nothing like an evening of crafting to cure a grumpy Monday. I stuffed, unstuffed, and restuffed this little lass three times before she was finally done (the first time, I forgot the tag (tags! I have tags now!), the second and third times, I picked the wrong spot to leave an opening & had a hell of a time sewing her up (I do this all the time!)). Meet Gertrude the Cat:

When I got home yesterday, I unrolled that bundle of grey wool that I picked up at the fabric sale, measured it out, and found all of 6 yards there (for $20! There was no indication on the tag so I hesitated at the sale, but was convinced, in the end, by the sheer heft of the bundle. I think I did well!), so I tucked right in and came up with Gertie. I’ve been messing around with ways to attach tails for a bit and finally settled on the buttoned on tail since it seems to work best with my very limited sewing abilities. Gertie is up for adoption in the shop and I’ll be working on some more cats in the coming days to send away to The Glitter Workshop.

This morning is the sort of morning that puts a spring in my step and makes me feel like hailing and hallooing every human being I skip past. Happy Tuesday to you, and you, and you! And you, too.

A bit wretched today. I had grand plans to craft the weekend away (starting 6pm Saturday, I worked til then), but all I managed to churn out was five sets of note cards and one large-size card for the mister to give to a colleague of his who is getting married & moving away (my first commission! Wee bit of excitement there). I was hoping to dive into my recently acquired fabric haul, make a few bags, polish off some owls, try my hand at a cat softie design I have been planning too long and not actually doing anything about, and have a go at the May Month of Softies theme (ideas! All these ideas buzzing around in my brain! I haven’t even started on this yet, will I make it?).

Lately I’ve been feeling like I’m in a bit of a rut with the softies. I’m still very fond of the general design (wool/felt bodies, felt faces, cotton/button embelishments), but I feel like they are lacking a certain something. Clothes, maybe? I’m not very handy with the sewing machine when it comes to miniature clothing (I adore the details on dolls like Hillary’s, but the actual sewing is a bit fussy for me), so I’m thinking of having a go at little knits. Scarves shouldn’t be a problem, maybe hats too, although I can’t say I’m thrilled about knitting little sweaters! Will keep you posted, but for now, all this is to say that it’s been a bit of a wretched weekend and a decidely grumpy Monday. Don’t let me put a damper on your spirits though, especially all you south-of-the-border types. Happy long weekend to you!

Not quite sure when it happened, or why for that matter, but it appears as though I am now the type of person who buys large-print fabrics. To wit:

This is what I walked away with from the Textile Museum of Canada’s annual “More Than Just a Yardage Sale” sale. It’s a fundraising sale they have every year and most of the fabric is donated from some local big-name fabric stores that probably use it as an opportunity to clean house & get rid of large samples and bolt-ends. Their spring-cleaning = good deals for us little guys = funds for the museum. Everyone wins!

I usually find myself drawn to smaller, more subtle prints, but seeing piles upon piles of these wonderfully colourful prints made me step well outside my comfort zone. I have no plans for any of it (except that bundle of grey wool at the top of the picture, that is destined to become some owls), but right now I’m very much enjoying the over-stimulation of it all. This little fellow, for example, I can’t stop cooing over:

Hugely impractical, but I just couldn’t leave him behind! The sale continues tomorrow; if you’re in the area, I highly recommend a visit.

My little shop is plugging along nicely. I’ve spent most of this month working on sending out some promos (to The Sampler for the summer mailing, and to a handful of generous Switchboards folks) and have drawn up a little plan for “marketing” over the next few months. Pardon me, the language of commerce sounds completely foreign in my head. It’s a good thing the mister has a good handle on the whole retail thing.

In exciting shop news, owls & flower pins are now available at Dream & Sugar, and note cards are also up for grabs at PixelGirlShop. Also, I’m working on some more owls, cards, and a couple of bags for The Glitter Workshop, a real bricks & mortar shop in Madison, Wisconsin. And in site news, I’ve added an order form to the shop site for ease of ordering. Fun!

In lieu of the real-time conference blogging I expected to provide (but did not), here’s a collection of people I met at WILU. I drew these during sessions and found that they very much helped me keep names & ideas straight. This is pretty crucial for me, since I usually come home from conferences with my mind abuzz and faces and names are the first to dissolve into a jumble. Names have been suppressed to protect the innocent from their ill-drawn fate.

I probably don’t have to explain to you the excitement of coming home to a package with your name on it on your doorstep, but I can tell you that it’s at least three times as exciting when you come home from a three-day trip to two packages with your name on them on your front table! This is the package I received from my back-tack buddy (for anyone not involved with back-tack the deal is that you receive fabric and embellishments from your buddy, make a notions bag out of the stuff you’ve been sent, and send that on to a different back-tack buddy; you’re in the exchange loop too, so an unknown buddy is making you a notions bag too! More here). Some lovely toile-like fabric, creamy cotton for the lining, and all sorts of funky embellishments (embroidery floss, buttons, and a tassle). I haven’t done a whole lot with embellishments (in my illustrious two-month tenure in sewing) and, frankly, tassles frighten me a little, but therein lies the challenge I suppose. Onward!

As well, my back-tack buddy included a little RAOK for me: a skein of Elsebeth Lavold Silky Tweed in a lovely turquoise, and some excellent bits of ribbon to ease me along in overcoming my fear of embellishments. Thank you, back-tack buddy extraordinaire! And, speaking of RAOKs, I had a happy little e-card in my e-mail from Gina the other day, thanks, Gina. I’m positively overcome by all this random kindness!

And, in case you’re wondering, the second package that awaited my homecoming was a stack of woven labels I ordered for the shop. It’s nice to have some labels to sew into my owls & bags, and I anticipate a flurry of softie-creation on the near horizon.

Part of what I was up to during the radio silence was a front yard overhaul which we started and finished in a single day (all thanks to my excellent work horse family, thank you, famille!). You might remember me mentioning this little yard problem last year. Well, it’s done! Before and after pics are here.

Hello, Internet! Sorry about the radio-silence, when I mentioned the library-junket last week, what I really meant to say was that I may or may not post for a bit. But that’s all done now and if you’re curious at all about what I got up to while I was away, here’s a link to the talk I gave to a wonderful bunch of librarians on Tuesday, and here’s some thoughtful blogging about the conference I was at the rest of the week (read the “WILU” posts). I thought about blogging WILU myself, even took the iBook with me, but alas, no WiFi and a pay-for-use connection in the campus-residence I was at meant that wasn’t going to happen. Lots of free Internet in the library, mind you, I was just too busy conferencing, eating great food, and chatting with interesting librarians.

My aggregator is caving beneath the weight of all that fresh content waiting to be read! Plus I have stories and pictures to share, O yes I do. Right now, to bed. More to-morrow!

I’m at the start of an all-library-all-the-time junket at the moment: Friday, I was at the OLITA Digital Odyssey, Tuesday, I give a talk to the SLA Ontario Southwest chapter on blogs & RSS, and Wednesday through Friday, its all about library instruction at WILU (our very own, home-grown Canadian version of LOEX). I enjoy these intense spurts of library-activity, there’s something about being in a roomful of librarians for seven days that rejuvenates the librarian-enthusiasm in me. Not much of a stretch, I suppose.

And, I thought I’d give you an update on the PC-Mac switch that I mentioned a couple of months ago and then never spoke of again. I’m not sure why, but when I bought the iBook, I anticipted a long-road-ahead, characterized by a steep-ish learning curve and old PC habits needing to be broken. It ended up being much ado about nothing, the learning curve was not so steep, and a week or so of working on the iBook at night got me well past the single mouse button issue, and all the other little oddities of using a Mac. I love this little feller now, more than is healthy to love an inanimate object probably, but there you go.